I told you so!

President Barack Obama - The Next President of The United States of America.
And, almost as important, we are finally coming to the end of the Bush Error!

Barack Obama in Berlin

Here are some links to articles that respond to the speech;
nymag.com
latimes.com
telegraph.co.uk

The Obama Plan

“Conventional thinking in Washington lined up for war. The pundits judged the political winds to be blowing in the direction of the President. Despite - or perhaps because of how much experience they had in Washington, too many politicians feared looking weak and failed to ask hard questions. Too many took the President at his word instead of reading the intelligence for themselves. Congress gave the President the authority to go to war. Our only opportunity to stop the war was lost. I made a different judgment. I thought our priority had to be finishing the fight in Afghanistan. I spoke out against what I called "a rash war' in Iraq. I worried about, ‘an occupation of undetermined length, with undetermined costs, and undetermined consequences.’ The full accounting of those costs and consequences will only be known to history. But the picture is beginning to come into focus.” —Barack Obama, Clinton, Iowa, September 12, 2007

The Problem

The Surge: The goal of the surge was to create space for Iraq's political leaders to reach an agreement to end Iraq's civil war. At great cost, our troops have helped reduce violence in some areas of Iraq, but even those reductions do not get us below the unsustainable levels of violence of mid-2006. Moreover, Iraq's political leaders have made no progress in resolving the political differences at the heart of their civil war.

Military Strain: The military is being severely strained by repeated and lengthy deployments. The Army and Marine Corps are facing a crisis as 40 percent of their equipment is either in Iraq or being repaired. This crisis has led many of our generals to conclude that current demands make our forces unable to rapidly respond to the contingencies we may face in the future.

Barack Obama's Plan

Judgment You Can Trust

As a candidate for the United States Senate in 2002, Obama put his political career on the line to oppose going to war in Iraq, and warned of “an occupation of undetermined length, with undetermined costs, and undetermined consequences.” Obama has been a consistent, principled and vocal opponent of the war in Iraq.

• In 2003 and 2004, he spoke out against the war on the campaign trail;
• In 2005, he called for a phased withdrawal of our troops;
• In 2006, he called for a timetable to remove our troops, a political solution within Iraq, and aggressive diplomacy with all of Iraq’s neighbors;
• In January 2007, he introduced legislation in the Senate to remove all of our combat troops from Iraq by March 2008.
• In September 2007, he laid out a detailed plan for how he will end the war as president.

Bringing Our Troops Home

Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.

Press Iraq’s Leaders to Reconcile

The best way to press Iraq’s leaders to take responsibility for their future is to make it clear that we are leaving. As we remove our troops, Obama will engage representatives from all levels of Iraqi society – in and out of government – to seek a new accord on Iraq’s Constitution and governance. The United Nations will play a central role in this convention, which should not adjourn until a new national accord is reached addressing tough questions like federalism and oil revenue-sharing.

Regional Diplomacy

Obama will launch the most aggressive diplomatic effort in recent American history to reach a new compact on the stability of Iraq and the Middle East. This effort will include all of Iraq’s neighbors — including Iran and Syria. This compact will aim to secure Iraq’s borders; keep neighboring countries from meddling inside Iraq; isolate al Qaeda; support reconciliation among Iraq’s sectarian groups; and provide financial support for Iraq’s reconstruction.

Humanitarian Initiative

Obama believes that America has a moral and security responsibility to confront Iraq’s humanitarian crisis — two million Iraqis are refugees; two million more are displaced inside their own country. Obama will form an international working group to address this crisis. He will provide at least $2 billion to expand services to Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries, and ensure that Iraqis inside their own country can find a safe-haven.

Barack Obama's Record

• Barack Obama opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning. In 2002, as the conventional thinking in Washington lined up for war, Obama had the judgment and courage to speak out against the war. He said the war would lead to "an occupation of undetermined length, with undetermined costs and undetermined consequences." In January 2007, Obama introduced legislation to responsibly end the war in Iraq, with a phased withdrawal of troops engaged in combat operations.
• Obama has a plan to immediately begin withdrawing our troops engaged in combat operations at a pace of one or two brigades every month, to be completed by the end of next year. He would call for a new constitutional convention in Iraq, convened with the United Nations, which would not adjourn until Iraq's leaders reach a new accord on reconciliation. He would use presidential leadership to surge our diplomacy with all of the nations of the region on behalf of a new regional security compact. And he would take immediate steps to confront the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Iraq.

Yes, We Can! - Video

The Untimely Demise of the Edwards Campaign

John Edwards ran a valiant campaign and he championed a great cause, but apparently he just is not what the American people are looking for in a President. That being said, I think John Edwards will make an awesome Vice-President with Barack Obama and I fully anticipate Barack Obama choosing John Edwards as his running mate.
I think that perhaps John Edward's campaign was too narrowly focused on the poor and this was a limitation for his campaign and it sort of pigeon-holed him and kept him from garnering a wider base of constituents. His cause was a necessary and noble cause and we definitely need someone in the Oval Office to help the poor in this country, and I'm hopeful that Barack Obama will carry that torch to the White House when he is elected President.
John Edwards lived about a mile from my house in Raleigh for many years and I felt like I should be supporting John Edwards, but I think John did not play his cards right, I think he should have stayed in the Senate for several terms and waited before throwing his hat into the presidential race. You have to admire his courage and ambition, you know what they say; no guts, no glory.

HillBillary

The Hillbillery scheme of spinning mud into gold just simply has not worked out as planned (the third party mudslinging was not an accident, hellooooooo!). Just as I predicted, Hillary Clinton(s), the Teflon Candidate, has had to call off the attack dogs, reign in the rhetoric and put a muzzle on her main mudslinging partner in slime (see this editorial - Question for the Clintons). Slick Willie's dream of reliving the glory days is fading fast, let's face it there is just too much baggage associated with Bill Clinton (can you say Lewinsky? I knew that you could!) for him to be a significant asset to her campaign. That is why Hillary Clinton will not win the nomination.
On a more positive note, there is more good news for the Obama campaign this week, on top of the BIG win in the moderately deep south, and the good news is that Senator Edward Kennedy now endorses Barack Obama, a big time endorsement by a big time Senator.
Now it's on to Super Tuesday, where we will see Barack Obama break away from the peleton and get a big stage victory!

Thats it for now,
Ciao.

Barack to the Future!

The future is Now, Barack Obama is the future. Barack Obama is the nerdy black John F. Kennedy of 2008 and Barack Obama is the future of the United States of America. Barack Obama is not the "black candidate", he is simply "the candidate".
Also, from now on I'll be referring to Hillary Clinton as "The Clintons" or maybe just Hillary Clinton(s). It's obvious that the Teflon Candidate's campaigning tactic of letting her cronies do her mud slinging for her (and then not taking responsibility) has backfired big time on her campaign and has set her campaign back a notch. It's obvious that voters are not as stupid as she thinks they are and they can see through her transparent second and third party mudslinging scheme. Hillary Clinton(s) will clearly have to go back to the proverbial drawing board and come up with a new scheme, one that is intelligent and a scheme with maybe just a hint of honesty and integrity.
Until then, it's Barack to the Future! With Barack Obama's big win in South Carolina today the future is so bright Barack may have to start wearing shades.